


Far From the Tree

by moon_opals



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Family Secrets, Gen, Illegitimate Children, Tea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-05
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-06-05 12:55:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15171212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moon_opals/pseuds/moon_opals
Summary: It isn’t like the possibility never crossed Matilda's mind. She’ll be forty four in a month, and knows better to suspect the innate goodness of people. Her brother taught her that.





	Far From the Tree

It isn’t like the possibility never crossed Matilda's mind. She’ll be forty four in a month, and knows better to expect the innate goodness of people. Her brother taught her that. But still, she cannot stop the tiny little question from bubbling to the surface of her mind. _Why?_

The guest sits on the other side of the table. He sips his tea quietly, staring at the tapestries and portraits hanging on the stone walls. Matilda wants this to be a bad dream. Not a nightmare. But a bad, bad dream she’ll wake up from in the next six minutes and a half. She wants to pretend this never happened.

 _“Uncle Jake did the same thing and look what it’s got you.”_ She drown her tea in a single gulp, ignoring the searing pain, and closes her eyes to steady her breath, “Um...Ah’m sorry. Ah donnae wot ta’ say right now.”

His empathetic smile tries to soothe her. He taps the cup’s rim, staring into the small pool of tea, “Ah’m sorry too. Ah jes wanted answers, and the last time we came…,”

He trails off, leaving an emptier gap than before. She nods, raising her hand to stop his continuation, “Ah knae, Uncle Jake told me.”

There’s something innocent about him. Matilda realizes she wants to take care of him. She wants to hold him in his arms and protects him with all her might. She wants to show him what love is, what love can be, but there isn’t anything naive about him either. It isn’t overt. He’s been loved - fiercely, dangerously, in ways she’ll never understand.

“Ye knae ye dinnae do anything wrong, right?”

Her chest wants to burst. Remember to breathe. Wiping her eyes with her wrists, a breathless laugh frees itself, “Ae knae, Gideon. Ae knae, Momma and Poppa will be comin’ soon.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Gideon McDuck is Scrooge's half brother. His momma ain't Downey.


End file.
